


Prelude

by ClaraxBarton



Series: Kinktober2019 [23]
Category: Captain America (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: Kinktober, M/M, Modern Bucky Barnes, Size Difference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-30 20:49:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21146411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaraxBarton/pseuds/ClaraxBarton
Summary: Steve finally lets Natasha set him up on a date.





	Prelude

**Author's Note:**

> For viridiean on Tumblr, who asked for size difference, and listen I WAS going to write the sexy times but I ran out of time before work.
> 
> Now beta read by the amazing Ro!

A CPA and a superhero walked into a diner.

It was the setup to a bad joke.

The kind of setup that only Natasha Romanov was capable of.

_ You’ll like him _ , she’d said to Steve as they sparred.

_ He’s adorable, _ she’d said to Steve while they waited for the barista to make whatever awful - and amazing - concoction Natasha had ordered from the coffee shop in the Stark Tower lobby.

_ He’s harmless _ , she’d said as Steve put a tourniquet on her thigh and shouted at Sam get them the hell out of there. And maybe it was the blood loss - hers and his, because Natasha had shot  _ through _ Steve to take out Doctor Doom’s henchman of the day, and sure, that had been fine and he’d even yelled at her to  _ just do it _ ! But that didn’t change the fact that it hurt, and that he was bleeding all over her while she bled all over him on the Quinjet ride home.

Regardless, he’d finally caved - after pointing out that  _ harmless _ wasn’t really his type and making her promise she wouldn’t try to get him to go on another date for at least six months.

And now, a week later, here he was.

While Natasha lounged on  _ his _ couch in  _ his _ Brooklyn apartment, because they both appreciated Tony’s attempts to force them into being a family but there were times when they needed to not be, and for some reason Natasha, while she was healing and hopped up on pain meds, wanted to snuggle with Steve’s couch cushions and watch shitty television shows.

And force him to go out on a date with an adorable, harmless  _ accountant _ .

The diner was a bit of a shock, a little too much like the automats of Steve’s youth for him to feel entirely comfortable.

The CPA was even more of a shock.

He was in a cardigan, for one thing - some kind of thick, navy, knitted thing that reminded Steve of cold winters and his ma’s voice singing him to sleep - and while a cardigan wasn’t  _ not _ a thing Steve imagined accountants wore, the riot of curly hair pulled up into a loose bun on his head, the thick-framed glasses and the hideous orange and blue  _ Mets _ shirt under the cardigan all added up to be… not what Steve had been expecting.

His blinding smile and storm cloud eyes, his bone structure that looked as though it had been carved by a particular doting - and insanely talented - sculptor… none of it, none of  _ him _ was what Steve would call ‘adorable’.

“Hi,” Steve said as he sat down across from the accountant. Bucky - a name that, okay,  _ that _ was adorable.

“Hey,” Bucky replied, blinding smile in place and eyes taking in Steve from behind those very large, very thick-framed glasses. “Steve?”

Steve nodded and gave Bucky an awkward - and so fucking unnecessary - little  _ wave _ .

Bucky’s lips quirked.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Bucky said. “Natalie’s been taunting me with your existence for… a while now.”

Steve winced.

Of course Natasha wouldn’t  _ just _ make Steve’s life miserable with her matchmaking. Of course she did it to other people too.

“Yeah. Sorry. She’s… really determined.”

Bucky laughed, soft and rich and mellow, and Steve kind of wanted to taste it.

“So…” Steve made himself not think weird and impossible thoughts. “You’re an accountant. How do you know Nat- Natalie?”

Bucky’s lips twitched again, and his eyes crinkled a little.

“I’m actually her accountant.”

“Oh. Right. That… that makes sense.”

Who was it, Steve wondered, that had called him the greatest tactical mind of the twentieth century? Because they had been so fucking wrong.

“And I’m guessing that you, personal trainer Steve, are  _ her _ personal trainer?”

“Guilty,” Steve held up his hands.

Bucky laughed again, and it was the only thing that kept Steve from standing up and walking out, because what in the actual  _ hell _ ?

He felt as flustered and useless as he had when he had first met Peggy - well, as he had during  _ every _ moment in Peggy’s presence. 

Great. Maybe Steve  _ did _ have a type. If ‘reduces me to idiotic nonsense and sweaty palms’ was a type.

“So, outside of giving Natalie a workout, what do you like to do?” Bucky asked.

And the question was so innocent, his quicksilver eyes so open and trusting and-

“I’m Captain America,” Steve blurted.

That had not been the plan. Not at all.

Not even as a backup, or on the list of options for his ‘cover’ that Sam and Steve and Natasha had come up with. After a full forty-eight hours of… not mission planning, but… date planning?

Bucky stared at him, mouth slightly open, eyes bright and wide.

“What can I get you boys?” the waitress asked, sidling up to their table and looking like she had lost her patience for humanity around the same time that Steve had gone into the ice.

“Reuben, with coffee,” Steve answered without thinking, without even looking because this diner was  _ too much _ like home.

“Same.” Bucky handed his untouched menu over to the waitress, still focused on Steve.

“Be right out,” she said, and took the menu out of Steve’s loose grip and then walked away.

“I’m sorry,” Steve sighed.

Bucky arched an eyebrow, high enough that it rose above the rim of his glasses.

“For what? Saving lives? Being a hero?”

“For ruining our date. I was supposed to just be Steve, Natalie’s personal trainer.”

Bucky’s mouth worked for a moment.

“Hell of a day job for Captain America - giving UN translators a workout.”

Steve nodded.

Natasha had been  _ very _ firm that her cover - Natalie Rocquette - was one of her favorites, and he was not, under any circumstances, allowed to screw it up.

“Gotta do something,” he shrugged helplessly.

“Saving the world isn’t enough?”

Steve gave him a look.

Bucky returned it.

Steve looked away first.

Their waitress brought back two cups of coffee, and for an awkward moment, they prepared their individual coffees in silence.

Bucky nudged Steve’s leg under the table.

Steve looked up at him.

“Two things,” Bucky said, and his cheeks were flushed, bringing out the blue in his eyes. “First, Natalie knows I’m a, uh, fan.”

“A fan?” Steve repeated with a frown.

Bucky nodded and set down his coffee cup, and pulled at the neck of his ugly shirt, revealing a swath of olive skin and-

“Oh.” Steve’s eyes were fixed on the tattoo, the very simple black line drawing of the shield. Of  _ his _ shield.

After a moment - which was not long enough, in Steve’s opinion - Bucky let go of his shirt and that tattoo, and his skin, disappeared from view.

Steve made himself swallow. Made himself take a sip of the coffee. Made himself stop looking at the spot on Bucky’s chest where that  _ should be illegal it was so awful _ shirt hid the tattoo. Made himself look Bucky in the eye again.

“The second thing?” Steve prompted.

Bucky bit his lower lip, sucked it into his mouth and then released it and  _ licked _ it.

“I, uh, I told Natalie I’d go out with her gym bro friend on one condition.”

“That she stop trying to set you up on dates for the next six months?” Steve guessed.

Bucky laughed, sounding a little startled, and Steve smiled back at him when Bucky’s mirth subsided.

“No, uh. I told her I’d go out with you  _ if _ you had a really big dick and didn’t have a problem using it to fuck me until I couldn’t walk right.”

Steve stared at him.

Bucky stared back.

“What did she say?” Steve asked, more than a little terrified.

Bucky rolled his shoulders in an easy shrug. He grinned at Steve.

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

-o-

  
  



End file.
